Surgery

Went for my very first surgery on Wednesday.

Not counting the one I went for at the dentist to remove an ingrown tooth, that is.

I've had this small little lump on my left calf for nearly seven years and it was uncomfortable and pretty painful. Got it checked some years back but the doctor said it was nothing to worry about. On Tuesday I went to a physician and got it checked again. He said it would be best to get it removed and he immediately referred me to the consultant general surgeon.
Who so happened to be one of my former college mate's father.

I was really excited for some reason.

So I went to the next doctor, he fiddled around with the little thing and told me it was some sort of nodule. I was scheduled for a minor operation the very next afternoon at one o'clock.

Reached the clinic by about twelve thirty, signed some forms et cetera and I was taken into the operation theatre.

I was way beyond excited by this point.

As soon as I went through the swinging doors I was asked to remove my sandals and wear the plastic ones that were provided. Then I was taken through more swinging doors and was asked to sit down while they took my blood pressure. Once that was done I was told to change. The nurse led me to the changing room and gave me one of those green gowns and a brown sarung (also known as a sheath, according to Google Translate). I had to remove everything. And yes, by everything I mean everything. But I kept my undies on. I just couldn't...

Anyway after changing I sat down in the waiting area again where they had previously taken my blood pressure. I waited and observed everything that was going on and finally they had me lie down on one of the gurneys.

The room was really cold, mind you. Really, really cold.

Once I was on the gurney they covered me with a blanket and I was staring at the light-less ceiling. Next to me on my right was an elderly lady (who, I later found out, was in for an eye operation). She asked me what I was in for and I told her. Then she was saying her prayers and I left her to it.

The nurses and doctors were all busy. I saw the doctors walking in and out over and over again. All they basically did was walk in and walk back out. They did nothing else from where I was watching. The nurses had to go patient to patient getting relevant information and tagging them based on what surgery had to be done.

There was a big white board that had a list of doctors and what operations they had to perform together with the names of the anestheticians on call or on duty.

Everything was like what I've always seen on Grey's Anatomy except the white board which wasn't as neatly written on and though the nurses and doctors were in scrubs, they weren't wearing sneakers. They were in slippers. Which I found rather odd.

My surgery was delayed because of a Sri Lankan lady who had come in for an emergency appendectomy. She was on the gurney to my left and she started speaking to me in Tamil asking me what was wrong with myself and why I'd come in. I tried as best as I could to reply in Tamil and as I was talking to her I could see her visibly relax a little.

I realized in that point in time how important it is to make your patient feel comfortable and at ease. I was completely fine until I went into the operation theatre. That's when the nerves kicked in. Especially when I was lying down on the gurney. All my excitement just, evaporated somehow. I knew it was a minor surgery and I had nothing to worry about but the fact that everyone was so serious made it terrible.

The Sri Lankan lady went in before me and came out of the operating room in under fifteen minutes. After that it was my turn. They wheeled me past two swinging doors and then into one of the rooms. I tried my best to look around and commit everything to memory but whatever I was looking at was upside down. The operating room I was taken into had sickeningly green walls. Why anyone would agree to such a colour is just beyond me. I was asked to scoot over to the operating table and I had to lie on my stomach; prone position, as the doctor said.

The only part that hurt was when he gave me the local anesthetic. He injected it all around the area and that was really painful. I remember how hard I was gripping the sheets and the pillow they had given me. After that I asked questions. So many questions. 

Would it hurt? No, ma. It won't be painful at all.

Are you sure? One hundred percent.

*Nervous laughter* Are you very sure? A hundred and two percent.

Then I shut up for a few seconds.

Have you cut it yet? Oh I cut it a long time ago.

Is it big? No, not very big by my standards, ma.

Which meant it was rather big.

Can I please see it when you've taken it out? (By it I meant the nodule). Yes, sure, of course!

And then to my horror I felt this sudden jolt of current run through my leg. I was horrified. Seriously horrified I yelped. Gripped the sheets even harder and said OW much too loudly.

Did you feel that, ma? YES I DID! WHAT WAS THAT?

Okay that was to stop the bleeding. Don't worry you won't feel that again.

I bloody well not, I thought to myself.

Then they stuck a round patch of plastic or something on the right side of my ass. Literally on the side of my ass. Thank heavens I had my undies on. That's all I was thinking about at that point.

I asked the nurse what it was for and she said it was to protect me from getting burned.

I swear I nearly turned over. WHAT? I asked her, my eyes huge. (I made sure to remember all my reactions because I knew I simply had to blog about this.) She calmly explained, again, that it was so that I wouldn't get burned.

I didn't understand how such a patch at the side of my ass would prevent me from getting burned when current had passed through my left leg. But I shut up anyway.

One of the nurses, who happened to be a male, showed me the nodule that was placed in a metal container.

I stared at it in wonder for a few moments. And then in disgust. It was about a centimetre and a half in diameter. The doctor had also removed some skin along with it. It was a huge lump of...something which looked like fat that had accumulated in just that area over the years.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore I contorted my body so I was looking up into the lights that were placed strategically above the operating bed. Half of the lights were on and half were off. I managed to see the reflection of what was going on with my leg on the surface of the lights that were off. There was so much blood, still. The doctor was already stitching me up by that point. He was moving so fast. So swiftly, I should say. It was amazing to watch.

Once my neck began to hurt I put my head back on the pillow and looked at the clock that was on the wall. Ten minutes had passed and he was done. They lifted my leg and put a bandage around my calf and shin. 

And it was over. Just like that.

I moved back onto the gurney very slowly as the nurses held my gown in place and I was wheeled out of the room and into the waiting area. I waited there for about fifteen minutes as they filled up forms and labeled the bottle containing my nodule which was to be sent to the lab for a biopsy.

They then moved my gurney as close to the changing room as possible so that I could get dressed back into my own clothes again. 

After changing I sat down and waited for the nurse from the doctor's clinic to come get me and then I met mom just outside the operating theatre again and we went down to the lobby where I sat again waiting for mom to pay for and collect my medication. She refused to let me walk though the doctor had strictly told me not to take on the role of a sick patient.

Anyhow.

We went for lunch after that and then back home where I slept the rest of the day away.

I went back the next morning to the doctor for him to change the dressing of the wound to a water proof one. He told me to expose it after a week. Something I'm really not looking forward to. The scar would be very visible. He couldn't do fine sutures because of the position of the nodule. If it had been on the face or neck or any such region the sutures would have been different, hardly noticeable, but because it's on the leg and I'll be walking a lot, he used stronger ones to hold it in place. I remembered to ask him what that sticky patch on my ass was. He explained to me that when the current he put went through my leg, it needed an outlet to move back out otherwise it would move all over my body. So that patch served as the outlet for the current.

Wouldn't get burned it seems -.- 

Seriously.

It's healing very slowly. I can't walk about as much and I'm limping slightly. Too much movement causes quite a bit of pain and it starts to bleed, which isn't a good sign. I don't know how I'm going to get through next week without experiencing any pain or worrying about the stitches coming off before due time.

I arrived back down south late this evening only to be greeted by a broken pipe in the bathroom. One of my neighbours came back sometime last week and heard water running in my unit and he kindly turned off the main (using a stick since the water meter is inside my unit, not outside). When I came back and turned on the main, I see and hear a water fountain in the bathroom.

Immediately made a few calls and within half an hour one of the maintenance guys came over and helped to get it fixed. It was just a broken pipe. If I'd had the part I could've fixed it myself coz I have all the other necessary tools. I just didn't have the spare pipe. But anyway that's done.

Lots of cleaning to do. The whole place is really dusty and it's making me wheeze.

Asthma really is no fun.

Lots of clothes to wash.

Need to collect the curtains I gave for washing.

Need to stock up on food.

All this without making my leg bleed or hurt.

I can't even...

And then I wondered; if this is what it's like for just a minor surgery, what the hell would a Cesarian section be like?!